WHAT I BLOG WITH

Today I thought it would be interesting to show you all what equipment I use to blog with. Before you read this post, please know that you do not need all of this to blog or make videos, you can do both of those things just with your phone! I have collected a lot of these things over years as they are expensive so don’t feel like you need to go out and buy all this equipment to get started because you really don’t, just work with what you’ve got.

Camera – My most prized possession is my camera, I got it for my 21st birthday and it is the best thing I’ve ever owned. I have the Canon EOS 750D along with a few different lenses. A good camera does make your blog photos look so much better but I still often just use my iPhone camera as it’s easy and for some things I prefer iPhone pictures. I take the majority of my instagram photos on my phone. At the moment I have the iPhone 5s but I’m soon getting the iPhone 7 which, with the higher megapixel camera will improve my phone photos. When I first got my camera I sort of learned how to manually setup the settings depending on what type of photo I wanted but now I just always have it on aperture priority which just seems to work with all photos.

Lenses – I don’t know that much about cameras but I do know that lenses can make a big difference to your photo. The body of the camera isn’t really as important as which lens you use. My camera came with the kit lens which is the Canon 18-55mm lens and a lot of people say that the kit lenses are rubbish, but I actually really like it. I use it most often out of all the lenses I own, it is the perfect inbetween lens as it zooms in quite far and isn’t too bulky. I also have the Canon 10-18mm lens which is really wide angled so you can fit a lot more in the photo, this is perfect for landscapes and room tour videos! It might just be what setting I have my camera on but out of all my lenses I think the 10-18mm one is the worst quality, not that it is bad quality its just my other lenses take nicer photos. I feel like the photos don’t come out as sharp and they seem to be darker. Next I have the Canon 50mm which I got for my 22nd birthday, this type of lens is a classic with most bloggers and youtubers. This lens allows you to get that blurred effect in the background while the subject is super crisp. I love this for taking close ups of products and it’s beautiful for portraits. Every photo I take with this lens looks super professional! The last lens I have is not one I use for blogging any more now that I have others but it might just have to be my favourite. It is the Tamron 18-270mm zoom lens, this zooms in like crazy! It can zoom right into the moon and still have an extremely clear photo! It is also great for wildlife photography, I took it to work with me at the wildlife sanctuary and got incredible photos of the foxes without being close to them to disturb them.

Camera Accessories – You can never go wrong with more than one camera battery! I don’t know how I would live without at least 2 as it’s the biggest faff when you’re taking photos and your camera dies then you have to wait for it to charge! I would totally recommend getting another battery so you can always have a back up. SD cards are also a must, I have loads that I have collected over the years but I would recommend getting the largest storage one you can afford as again it’s just a hassle to have to delete photos all of the time! I have the Sandisk HD extreme pro cards in loads of different storage sizes, I don’t really know what the difference between extreme pro cards and normal ones are but my mum said these are the best so I just went with her recommendation! For anyone wanting to blog or make videos if you’re going to get anything get a tripod! I literally have had my tripod since I was 15, it was about £10 from argos and its still going strong! It is super basic but does the job, I can’t find a link to the exact one I have because it’s so old but this is a similar one from amazon. Tripods come in so handy, I wouldn’t be able to take 99% of my photos if I didn’t have one. I used to have a gorilla pod tripod, you know one of the ones that has loads of balls that make up the legs and they’re bendy? Well I think it got into the hands of my brother and I’ve never seen it since, so until I get round to purchasing another one I’ve just got this little handheld tripod which is good for when you don’t need much height just mainly support.

Lighting – I have been blogging since 2010 and only this year I bought myself some lighting. I bought myself a ring light mainly for videos but until recently I also used it for taking blog photos. I bought one so that I am not restriced to day light hours and good lighting just makes the quality of your photos a whole lot better. Truthfully I also use it for when I occasionally take selfies as it gets rid of any shadows on your face and leaves the reflection of the rings in your eyes, which I quite like for some reason! I have this one from Neewer, it was one of the cheapest and it has served me well so far. A few days ago I bought myself a light that attatches to the top of my camera and it is just amazing! It has a dimmer so you can have it as bright as you like and it literally is like a spot light! The light travels far and is really good for close ups of products. It comes with two diffusers one is clear and the other one is orange so that you’re not blinded (as much) when you look at it. This is much more convenient to use than the ring light as it is portable and doesn’t take much effort to set up. The one I have is from Aputure.

Editing – If anyones interested I will do a blog post all about how I take my blog photos, including what props I use and how I style photos. I will also share how I edit my photos with you so if you are interested either let me know in a comment or tell me on any of my social media accounts which you can find on the right hand side of my blog.

I hope this blog post has been helpful for you, if you have any questions ask away and I’ll speak to you soon!